Cartridge belt link



AP 1950 J. .H. LEWIS, JR 2,502,466-

CARTRIDGE BELT LINK Filed June 2.7, 1943 Patented Apr. 4, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) 2 Claims.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to a cartridge belt link of a type adapted to be employed in disintegrating feed belts for machine guns and similar automatic weapons.

Belt links of this character generally comprise a pair of axially aligned and spaced apart cartridge gripping loops which are adapted to yieldingly grip a machine gun cartridge at spaced locations on the body thereof. Commonly the forward or smaller one of such loops is called the neck loop and is provided with means engaging the shoulder formed at the neck of the cartridge to definitely locate the head of the cartridge in relation to the link and the feedway of the ma chine gun. Such belt links also have attached to the gripping loops, in axially parallel relation, a s

connecting loop which is in opposition to the space defined between the gripping loops and 01T- set therefrom a suflicient distance to permit a cartridge to be engaged by the gripping loops and an adjacent cartridge of an assembled belt to be received in the connecting loop in properly spaced relation to the first mentioned cartridge.

In normal operation a series of cartridges are linked together for feeding to a machine gun in such a fashion that the cartridge received in the gripping loops of one link forms a pintle upon which the connecting loop of an adjacent link may be received. As the belt is fed to the gun the cartridges are successively withdrawn and the links allowed to fall to the ground or into a suitable receptacle.

This invention corresponds generally to the description above given as do most of the belt links of the prior art. There are, however, many variations in the connection of the loops into an in-v tegral structure and it is on these difierences that important distinctions in the operating characteristics of the links are based.

Among the more important of the requirements for an ideal belt link may be mentioned: strength, constancy of pitch distance, ability to maintain a yielding grip upon the cartridge under all con ditions of service, and flexibility in all directions.

Certain of the most Widely used of the prior links, while suitable from a point of view of flexibility, have been deficient in belt lifting capacity because of the fact that their pitch distance did not remain constant under the strain of feeding long belts. The result has. been that the length of the belts has been limited by the ability of the link to resist deformation, or it has been necessary to increase the dimensional constancy of the link by the use of better grades of steel, or by heat treating the metal to a degree of hardness beyond the limits of good practice.

It is the object of this invention to produce a belt link possessing a high degree of flexibility and superior characteristics in regard to strength, constancy of pitch distance, and gripping ability.

It is a further object of this invention to produce a belt link which may be made of a lighter weight material, or which may be made of a less critical grade of material, and with a lesser deree of heat treatment.

The exact nature of the invention as wellas other objects and advantages thereof will be apparent from a description of preferred embodiments as shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a preferred form of my link;

Figure 2 is a forward end elevational view of my link;

Figure 3 is a top plan view of my link;

Figure 4 is a side elevational view;

Figure 5 is a cross sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a modified form of my link;

Figure 7 is a forward end elevational view corresponding to Fig. 6; v

Figure 8 is a fragmentary perspective view of another modification of my link.

Referring to the drawing by characters of reference the link shown in Figures 1 to 5 will be seen to comprise a connecting loop I, a cartridge body gripping loop 2 and a cartridge neck gripping loop 3. Joining the loops into an integral structure are a pair of junction strip members 4 and 5. It will be noted that one end of each loop extends from an edge of one of the junction members and that the other end of the corresponding loop member extends from the corresponding edge of the other junction strip. As seen in Figure 1 the upper ends of the gripping loop members extend from the lower edge of the junction strip 5 and their lower ends terminate on the lower edge of the junction strip 4. Similarly the lower end of the connecting loop I extends from the lower edge of the junction strip 5 and passes around the circle therefrom in the same circular direction as do the gripping loops to also terminate on the lower edge of the junction strip 4. V

Preferably the junction strip 4 will be fairly 3 closely engaged with the connecting loop I as at 6 and offset slightly therefrom as at 1 and 8 to increase the flexibility of the belt which will be formed from a plurality of the links. In the preferred form of the link shown in Figures 1 to 5 the junction strip 5 lies against the junction strip 4 in overlapping relation thereto.

In the, modified form shown in Figure 8the central portion ll of the junction strip 5b has been offset into contact with the portion of the junction strip 421 between the offset shoulders lb and 81) on the strip 4b. This interlocking of the, junction strip does not interfere with the freedom of the body loops 2b and Sbto maintain a yielding grip on the cartridgebody but does im:-

pose considerable restraint on any tendency to endwise slippage of one junction strip upon-the other. In addition the junction. strip 4b may have formed therein one or morev corrugations 9 with which mating corrugations l on the junction, s trip 5b, engage, Suchcorrugations should lQtLbQso deep as to engage the circumference of the, adjacent body loops and obviously the corrilgatio is may be reversely formed if desired. These modifications have the effect of permitting the ,u ..0f, a lighter weight material in forming thelinksincethey. prevent endwise sliding movement between the'junction strips which might, unless more rigidfmaterial were used, tend to causethej links tofireep on the cartridges when a, completedbelt wasseverely flexed as it may b n ircraitin allatio s.

Tne corrugations 9 and lilmay be used alone or in conjunction with the offset portion it althoughit shoulcibe obvious that, the overlapping frictional, contact shown in Figures 1 to 5 will besufiicient toprevent creep with any but the li hte w i ht material To increase flexibility it is contemplated that thawidthof thebandof material forming the connecting loop I will be slightly reduced adjantthe, junction strips. This reduction in width is best shown in Figures 3 and 4 where the width of the bandlforming the connecting loop. is seen to be taperedsoas to be greatest at a position remote fromthe gripping loops and least at a position adjacent the gripping loops.

The, feature.v which, contributes most to the strength and dimensional'constancy ofv mylink isthe continuousfigure eight conformation. It should be obvious that tension loads applied to the belt. cannothave the effect of increasing the pitch distance materially since the figure eight structure merely tends to draw .tighter upon the: cartridges und -zr load. In-this way the troubleson e tendency. otthe links of the prior art to .open,up or extend themselves under load has been positively avoided.

While it may. appear that the forming of a link of this character. would be a troublesome operation, such is notthe case. The blankfromwhich the linkis formedis a fiat substantially rectangular metallic strip having. a length dimension slightlygreater than the greatest circumferential dimension. o1 the. cartridge to be secured therein. Apair, of, slots or. cuts are made in the blank in parallelism withthe greatest dimension of the blank and terminatingshort of the endsof the blank, thus providing three parallel strips joined to each other by junction strips at each end. Such a ,blank may. be formed into three loops having a common axis with an end of each loop terminating on one of the junction strips and with the other end of each loop' terminating on the other of thejunctionstrips. The center one of the three loops may then be displaced along a substantially arcuate path having its center in the region of the junction strips to a position in which the center loop lies axially parallel to but does not intersect the end loops. Suitable sizing operations complete the formation of the link. Obviously it is immaterial which direction the center loop is displaced; since a; reversal of the direction of displacement would produce a link which is the mirror image of one oppositely formed, both of the junction strips being in either case on the same side of a plane including the axes of the three loops.

A'modified form of the link is shown in Figures 6and; 7. As will be apparent from inspection of the drawing this link is identical with that earlier described with the exception that the junction strip 5a is in engagement with the body loop 2a and'neck loop 3a rather than in overlapping engagement with the junction strip 4a and connecting loop la. The advantages of the modified link and the method of forming it are substantially the same as those earlier described.

It will be seen that a link of this character, if formed of the same weight stock and given a comparable heat treatment, will be far stronger than the conventional links. t follows that this link may be made of a lighter weight material or may be heat treated to a lesser degree of hard ness than is present practice and still exceed'the strength-of present links. Another possibility is that a link of this character may be formed from the non-critical alloys or may be formed without heat treatment and still have acceptable characteristics for service.

I claim:

l. A cartridge belt link comprising a pair of axially, aligned. cartridge gripping loops, a connecting loop axially parallel with and adjacent to the gripping loops but completely out of registry therewith and a plurality of junction strips integral with the loops and forming junctions therebetween, each of said'junction strips being disposed at an angle to and on the same side of a plane including the, axes of all the loops, said junction strips lying upon each other in overlapping relation, one of saidjjunction strips being formed to define at least one indentation extending entirely across said one junction strip in a line defined by aplanenormal to the axes of the loops, and a projection formed on the other of said junction strips and received within said indentation with freedom for relative movement lengthwise of said indentation but not normal thereto.

2. A machine gun belt link comprising first and second junction strips, a pair of spaced coaxial cartridge gripping loops integral with the strips and extending inone circular direction from an edge of the firstvstrip to anedge of the second strip, and aconnecting loop axially, parallel to the gripping loops and offset from the space therebetween, the connecting loop being also integral with the strips and extending in thesame circular direction-as the gripping loops-from said edge of the first strip to said edge of the second strip, the junction strips lying upon each other in overlapping relationship and being provided 'with interengaging corrugations, said corrugations being so located that a plane cutting-uniformly through each of said corrugations will be at substantially right angles to the axes of the loops, and so loosely interengaged as to permit relative movement between 1 the junction strips 52 in alignment with the corrugations therein but Number not in a direction parallel to the longitudinal 1,328,230 axes of the loops. 1,550,787

JOHN H. LEWIS, JR. 2,302,595

5 2,347,930 REFERENCES CITED 2,3 ,337 The following references are of record in th 2,391,081 file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS m Number Number Name Date 36,603 386,535 Graham July 24, 1888 127,865 628,871 Trochain July 11, 1899 v Name Date Johnston Jan. 13, 1926 Dawson et a1 Aug. 25, 1925 Berry Nov. 1'7, 1942 Barton May 2, 194% Warren Jan. 9, 1945 Van Hofe et a1 Dec. 18, 1945 FQREIGN PATENTS Country Date Austria Mar. 10, 1909 Great Britain June 19, 1919 

